A Manual for Creating Atheists - by Peter Boghossian

Popular yet controversial Professor Peter Boghossian will present a preview of the material in his upcoming book A Manual for Creating Atheists, a down-in-the-trenches guide to "street epistemology".

Prof. Boghossian teaches philosophy at PSU. One of his latest courses is a class in Atheism, which has featured a number of famous guest speakers, including Michael Shermer and Massimo Pigliucci. You can see some of these presentations at this YouTube channel: http://tinyurl.com/PeteBog1 .

This event is sponsored by the Humanists of Greater Portland. Admission is free.

I think it was a good event. He says he has 'non-threatening' demeanor when approaching people to determine how/why/when/ they came to believe what they do, and to what extent. Getting the story from them to explain the 'evolution' of their 'faith'. . which puts them in the driver's seat, so they can work it out for themselves, possibly feel they are smarter for seeing & correcting themselves, rather than being 'told' something, let them do the talking to explain. I know I need to do this myself as I talk too much anyhow.As a couple people noted, maybe could do 'skits' in groups to act out scenarios. Fun...

Please note: Prof. Boghossian is a very popular speaker, and we at HGP expect a large crowd. Seating is limited, and there may be more people than we can accommodate. See updates at www.portlandhumanists.org

I'm pulling out my 'mothers day' card and bringing both of my sons. They are both terrific guys, but are a bit at odds with regards to their basic beliefs & take on reality. Should be quite interesting and will give us much to discuss over brunch!

Yes, I commented on the FB page (a long time ago) that they had the address wrong. (It's understandable -- if you look up Friendly House, that's the "official" address, but not near the entrance, which is as it states here, at 26th and Thurman.) I also wonder what sense it makes to have the announcement in so many different places, unless they are at least linked to the official one(s) (at HGP) which will have the latest and most correct info -- but I'll leave that to the powers that be. (Hint: Signing up for these meetups or FB pages will make absolutely no difference in your ability to get one of the limited seats at the event.)

Dave, could you provide a link to the official place to sign up? I've signed up every time I've been sent an invite to the engagement beginning several weeks ago. Now I'm not sure if I'm on the roster. Thanks, Michael

HGP will be ironing out some of these details this Sunday, I understand. Because this is HGP's regular meeting time and place, there MAY be special seating (and/or early entrance) for HGP members who request it (i.e. members of the non-profit, www.portlandhumanists.or­g, not the meet up), but that will be ironed out soon. Although we occasionally have overflow (i.e. more than 80) at our regular meetings, and we set up an extra simulcast room, Peter's talks are especially popular, so we set up multiple simulcast rooms, seating as many as 250 total. So hopefully there will be more answers next week.

I've posted a bit more info on the HGP meetup page. Doors to the building will probably open sometime between 8:45 and 9AM. (That "250 total" guess was way high, by the way, probably closer to half that.)

Thanks for the offer(s) of help! But I did get clarification from HGP (and authorization to speak) on this, that this was a "crossed wires" situation within HGP: It's the standard weekly HGP meeting, and HGP will have the people they need to run it. (I was told this would be cleared up through "channels", but am not sure it has been yet.)

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